2. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooking appliance, and in particular one incorporating a single or dual cavity oven.
Various types of cooking appliance are known, powered by gas, electricity or other fuels, which fit broadly into two categories. The first category is the "all-in-one" cooker consisting, typically, of an oven having one or two cooking cavities (one of which may incorporate a grill), on top of which is located a hob having a plurality of cooking elements, and above which there may be located an extractor fan or a grill. This type of cooker is designed to stand along i.e not to be incorporated into an item of kitchen furniture.
The second general type of cooking appliance has a separate oven and hob unit. This type of cooking appliance is designed to be mounted in or around one or more items of kitchen furniture. Typically, there are two configurations in which such a cooking appliance is mounted: (I) with the oven unit located under a work top and the hob unit mounted on the work top at a separate location, or (ii) with the oven unit in a "stack" or "tall oven housing", usually at eye level for a user, and again with the hob unit being mounted on a work top at some separate location.
In both of these arrangements, a fixed volume is available for mounting the oven, the size of which is defined by relevant local, national and international standards, this imposing a limit on the maximum size of oven that can be provided.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
It is standard practice within the art, as typified in GB-A-2220739, to provide the controls for the oven in a control panel which is included as part of the oven unit, either above or at the side of the oven cavity. So strong is this preference within the art that, even where a proposal is made to provide separable controls, as in GB-A-2015870 or EP-A-578600, the space that the controls would normally occupy remains as an unoccupied blank within the volume of the oven unit.
The applicant has realised that this long-accepted teaching is, in fact, disadvantageous, because a portion of the fixed space is taken up by the control panel and associated control circuitry, thereby reducing the space available to the oven cavity.
There are additional disadvantages of this arrangement. The control panel and control circuitry being located on the oven unit, may be adversely effected by the heat produced by the oven when in use. Mounting of the controls on a front panel of the oven unit may place them such as to be within the reach of children. Provision of controls on the oven unit may also reduce the versatility of the use to which the oven unit may be put.
The last of these disadvantages can be commercially very serious. As an example, within the European market, ovens are generally of a vertical orientation. That is to say, the oven cavity is taller than it is wide. However, in American and Australasian markets, ovens of a horizontal orientation are often sold. That is, such ovens are wider then they are tall. This requires manufacturers to multiply the number of different oven chassis that they must produce if both orientations are to be provided, since an oven having controls attached cannot simply be rotated for use in an alternative configuration.
A further problem with all of the above types of cooking appliances is that the size of the oven cavity (or oven cavities if there is more than one oven provided) is fixed. Also the location and function of the heating means for heating the oven is fixed.